When the going gets tough…

...the "yes" campaign puts up a web site.

This is to complement the launch of the official campaign which – true to form – lurched into action in the heart of Euroland: Brussels, where else.

It was lunched, sorry, launched, by the president of the Young European Federalists Jon Worth, who claim to be out to counter eurosceptic attacks on the constitution, particularly in the UK. He was joined by Labour MEP Richard Corbett and Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff.

These two will be front runners in what the EU parliament is calling their "rapid reaction force", aimed at countering the dreaded lies put out by these Eurosceptics in 15 nanoseconds – provided it isn't lunch or dinner time (which takes eight hours out of the day).

The "yes" campaign is being run together with the European Movement International with "networks of activists" taking to the streets over the next 18 months. "Our message is a simple one: to secure prosperity, peace and a democratic future for the European Union, this constitution must be ratified," says Jon Worth. That's simple?

Nevertheless, the web site tells us that, "Resulting from a coordination of NGOs and civil society groups from across Europe," the "yes" campaign "is the first truly supranational referendum campaign, showing that Europe's citizens all care about a democratic future for the European Union".

After a little hunting around the site, it finally yields five reasons for voting "yes", amongst them being that: "A positive vote on the Constitution is a vote for a better EU." There's another catchy slogan for you.

We are then told that:

The Constitution represents the biggest institutional improvement of the EU's decision-making structures and introduces certain new elements that will make the EU more democratic and accountable. The citizens and the civil society have been long waiting for the opportunity to improve the way the EU functions. The Constitution anwsers (sic) most of their concerns and offers the chance for a significant step forward.

"Vote 'yes' for a significant step forward," I hear them cry. That will really have Sun readers rushing to the polls.

Most of all though, we are informed that: "the first European Constitution is a historic achievement" and there are "plenty of reasons why every European citizen should support its ratification". To make it easy for you lame-brains, though, the campaign is only going to tell you five of them. Frankly, though, they are so boring that I could not bring myself to edit them.

Leave it instead to arch-Europhile Richard Lamming, who neatly sums it all up, telling us that: "The campaign to overcome national sovereignty is the modern-day equivalent of the campaign against slavery or the campaign for the vote for women. The whole point is to extend democratic rights" (by abolishing them).

There we have it from the horse's mouth (I think it was the mouth). This is a "campaign to overcome (i.e., abolish) national sovereignty". Do we need to know more?